In October 1960, in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy stood on the steps of the University of Michigan Student Union and challenged the 10,000 students who had gathered there — at 2 a.m. — to see and hear him.
“How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana?” Kennedy asked.
“Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?
“On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”
Those words marked America’s informal introduction to a program that would officially begin March 1, 1961, when then-President Kennedy signed an executive order changing the Michigan challenge to an American reality called the Peace Corps.
Forty-five years later, according to its Web site, the number of Americans serving in the Peace Corps is at a 30-year high with 7,810 volunteers serving overseas. Volunteers in 75 countries work in the areas of education, health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, information technology, business development, the environment and agriculture.
To celebrate those numbers and the 45th anniversary, the Peace Corps kicked off a series of events Monday which continue through this week.
Peace Corps veterans Avis Andrews and Marilyn Gordon, both of Fremont, will join in the nationwide commemoration with a public presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday at Keene Memorial Library in Fremont.
Gordon served in Peru from 1964 to 1966, while Andrews volunteered in Ukraine from 1999 to 2001.
The women shared their experiences Monday with Peace Corps candidate Seth Brooks of Fremont and John Samson of Blair, whose nephew, Mark Duey, is currently serving with the Corps in Honduras.
“I remember feeling so free when I got there,” said Andrews of her arrival in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city of approximately 1 million people. “I had two years ahead of me, a whole new life.”
That life included helping women set up their own businesses, appearing regularly on a television show — with her commentary translated — and learning about the country through its museums and concerts — and a side trip to Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion.
Gordon’s two years in the Peruvian town of Compone, population 1,000, occurred in the earliest years of the Peace Corps. During three months of training, she and other volunteers underwent psychologists’ scrutiny in a process called “Selective Out” in which officials determined who could stand up the rigors of the Peace Corps. Gordon proved she could and went on to create better living conditions in the remote mountain community.
After 40 years, she said, “Part of my heart is still in Peru.”
Not yet assigned to a country, Brooks, 24, said he is willing to go wherever he’s most needed.
His field is in secondary education, English and political science, and his goal is realistic.
“It’s not necessarily to change the world, but to help skilled workers and exchange cultures,” he said.
Samson said Duey, a professional design engineer, worked for HDR for four years before entering the Peace Corps in 2004.
“He left a lucrative practice,” said Samson. “He’s going to be 29, and he wanted to do something for others who didn’t have the things we take for granted.”
Since arriving in Honduras, Duey has coached a team of students to the finals of a national competition.
“He was very proud of that,” said Samson, noting his nephew sleeps in a bed surrounded by mosquito netting and has limited shower time.
“But he’s found (the Corps) very rewarding,” Samson said.
The Peace Corps Web site said more than 182,000 volunteers have served in 138 countries since 1961. Volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment.
On March 1, 1961, Kennedy warned that life in the Peace Corps would not be easy.
“There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs,” he said. “Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed — doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying.”
On Monday, Andrews put it even more simply.
“It changed my life,” she said. “I know that sounds like such a cliché. But it’s true.”
Presentation
* What: Presentation on the Peace Corps.
* When: 7 p.m. Thursday.
* Where: Keene Memorial Library, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont.
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